6 foot dish and dvb-s dvb-s2 CBand

[highskies]

Not sure which Forum this is best suited for, so I'll try here. I trust it will be moved if it fits another Forum better.

What I'm wondering, since some seem to have 6 footers, what is the percentage of feeds that can be gotten with a properly setup 6 footer? 50% of them? 75%? The reason I ask, is because over at Satforums, many over there claim anything less that a 10 footer is going to produce poor to no results for the tighter FEC'd dvb-s2 feeds. And I am meaning as far as CBand is concerned.

I'm thinking about getting a 6 footer and putting it in front of my offset dish in the front yard. I would have a clear shot at the entire sky all yr around. Where my current 7.5' dish is, there are trees obstructing the view 9 months out of the year. I don't think I could get away with putting the 7.5' dish in the front yard, but a 6 footer might not seem as much of an eyesore to the hypocrite neighbors. How useful would a 6 footer be, assuming it's tracking correctly? Are there some feeds with the 6 footer you would like to get, but can't, because the dish doesn't have enough gain, etc, IOW related to the dish size?

Also, one of these can be setup with a dual feed, correct? And finally, where's a good place to look for one of them, as in moneywise?

Right now I don't even have anything that is dvb-s2 capable, but am considering it in the future. But I do have dvb-s. How well does a 6 footer work on the majority of those feeds, in regards to CBand?

 

[brentb636]

My 6 footer HAS NEVER locked a DVB-S2 8psk signal. I've gotten DVB-S2 QPSK , all right, the few that I have seen. I have yet to find a DVB-S2 8 psk signal, regardless of FEC, that I can lock. I get a lot of DVB-S stuff, though.
I agree with the other forum members that if you expect to get the DVB-S2 8psk , 9/10 FEC signals, then you need at least a 10 foot dish . On Ku band, I haven't had any problems with DVB-S2 8psk using a 1.0M dish .
Hope this helps.

 

[Anole]

I'm going to limit my comments to "eyesore" and "dual feeds".
Will let others ( hash out the size issue.
I'll only say that bigger accurate dishes have a tighter beam width, and suppress adjacent-satellite signals, which gives the appearance of a stronger signal.

Eyesore:
Most of the 6' dishes discussed here on the forum, are solid, not mesh.
Solid dishes are not stealthy.
I'd never put one in my front yard.
There are some pictures here on the forum where members have painted their ChannelMaster 8' solids gray, black, or sand.
This does help to disguise them a little bit.
I have an 8½ white spun aluminum solid, and it's a real eye-catcher! - Not in a good way, IMO.

Not sure a small mesh wold be satisfactory in the shape & accuracy department.
However, mesh dishes in black or gray are harder to see from a distance.
I have an 8' spun aluminum perforated dish with a dull gray, that is about as stealthy as you can get in that size.

See signature for pix of both dishes.

Now, as to the matter of dual feeds:
I think you will find favorable reviews of the dual output C2 from SatelliteAV and the DMX242 from WSI (Galaxy-Marketing).
Both are forum Gold Sponsors, and have little adverts at the top of every page.
Whether it's good for S2 on a 6' dish, I have my doubts.

For a little more money and better performance, see our thread on Ortho Mode Feeds.
That thread should give you all the info you need to understand 'em (may need to read threads linked-to, also)

Either solution will require a multswitch to feed all your receivers.
I think a couple of recommendations are in the Ortho thread, so you're all set.

 

[Mr Tony]

The 6 footer can get I'd say 99% of the DVB-S out there. There is some 7/8 FEC items that are difficult to lock (like DW-TV on 103W)
as for DVB-S2 it depends. A few examples I can lock
-the RTV mux (4080) on 87W C-Band...the 3800 TP I cant lock
-there are DVB-S2 feeds on 91W that I can lock fine. They are 5/6 FEC
-7/8 or 9/10...no way

 

[mr3p]

My experience has been similar to Iceberg's with regards to 5/6 FEC feeds. Off the top of my head with my 6ft dish I can get S2 feeds from 91, 99 and 113.

 

[highskies]

The 6 footer can get I'd say 99% of the DVB-S out there. There is some 7/8 FEC items that are difficult to lock (like DW-TV on 103W)
as for DVB-S2 it depends. A few examples I can lock
-the RTV mux (4080) on 87W C-Band...the 3800 TP I cant lock
-there are DVB-S2 feeds on 91W that I can lock fine. They are 5/6 FEC
-7/8 or 9/10...no way

I like that.. the 99% of the DVB-S out there. Lot better than what I'm doing with my current BUD. It would be worth it it for that reason alone. And you said you can lock the RTV mux on 87W C-Band. That's plenty to watch then, even if one can't lock the 7/8 or 9/10. I think you talked me into it.

 

[skink]

I would agree that those 8psk s2 9/10 would be out of the question with a 6 footer,i been receiving the CBS and ABC feeds with a 8 footer up here in Canada.

 

[pendragon]

I have to interject that I've been able to lock most of the C-band DVB-S2 8PSK FEC 9/10 signals on a carefully aligned Fortec 1.8m with a dual orthomode feed and Norsat 8115s. When I had a single ortho on this dish, I believe there was only one FEC 9/10 it couldn't lock. Don't ever discount the value of a single orthomode feed and low phase noise LNBs for taming DVB-S2. This dish happens to have my longest cable run, but I've amplified and equalized it so the CNRs are within 0.1 dB, comparing at the dish to in the house. In simpler terms I've fought for every dB.

This doesn't mean this 1.8m performs like a bigger dish. It can't do anything with very low CNRs and it can't reject adjacent orbital slot interference like its bigger siblings. But it is our workhouse C-band dish, freeing the larger ones for more specialized roles.

 

[hd fan]

you have made me rethink upgrading to this kind of setup then. a bigger dish is a no go for me but better signal performance via better LNB/feed I can try that. lets hope there is no much adjacent interference for the signals that I want to get if I go ahead with this.